F0 tornado, Richland Hills, Texas, June 1, 2004

1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. F173 to 112 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. F3158 to 206 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. F4207 to 260 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. F5261 to 318 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

F0

Date

June 1, 2004

Touchdown

9:07 PM CDT (02:07 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Tarrant County

Touchdown point

32.730, -97.120

Lift-off point

32.730, -97.120

Record number

1368

A series of slow moving upper level disturbances produced unusually heavy rain across most of North Central Texas in June. The monthly rainfall ranged from a low of4.08 inches in Eastland County to 20.02 inches at Hudson Oaks in Parker County. Many locations had twice their normal rainfall for the month. The DFW Airport had the second wettest June on Record, and had measurable rain 18 days, the most days in any month with measurable rain. These heavy rains produced periodic flash flooding somewhere in North Central Texas nearly every day of the month. The month began with a northwest flow event on the 1st, with a large hp supercell producing large hail from Jack County southeast to Parker County. The storm had an erratic southeast movement, but when the storm entered Northern Parker County, it made a left turn and moved nearly due east through Tarrant County, producing countywide wind damage, with measured winds up to 86 miles an hour at the Meacham Airport, some large hail, and flash flood producing rains. This became the most destructive storm in Tarrant County since the Mayfest Storm on May 5, 1995. TXU Electric had their worst power outages in the Companies history, as over 500,000 people were without electricity, some for as long as 5 days. They had to bring in work crews from out of state to help restore power. Damage estimates for Tarrant County were well over $100,000,000 from this storm. Sporadic severe weather occurred the rest of the month, but heavy rain and flooding were the main problems.

A brief tornado touchdown occurred with no known damage.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

19 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:48 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:30 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Grand_prairie (GPM), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 24 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:04 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.